Jamie Foxx Learned An Important Lesson Trying To Impress Tom Cruise On Collateral

The digital Los Angeles night stretches on damn near forever in "Collateral," Michael Mann's excellent neo-noir about a taxi driver at the wrong place at the wrong time. That driver, Max, is played by Jamie Foxx, and one night, he picks up a passenger named Vincent, played by Tom Cruise in one of his best performances. As it turns out, Vincent is a hitman, and he forces Max to drive him all over town to kill some people. Vincent swears he'll let Max go when the night is through, but deep down, Max knows that can't be true. Vincent is a stone-cold killer, after all.

Foxx and Cruise are both fantastic in the film, playing off each other perfectly. Foxx's Max is nervous and sad while Cruise's Vincent is cold and calculated. Foxx was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his work in the film, and while that nomination was much deserved, the actor needed some advice from Michael Mann to nail down his performance. Part of the problem, it seems, came from Foxx trying to impress Tom Cruise. Which is understandable — we'd all like to impress Tom Cruise. But remember: that guy jumps off mountains for fun. He's probably not easily impressed. 

While speaking with Yahoo, Foxx revealed it was "a blessing to be able to work with that cast and director," and that Mann gave him some good advice during a particular scene. The scene in question involves Cruise getting into Foxx's cab, at which point Foxx decided to crank the "ACTOR" dial up to 11. As Foxx put it:

"So I'm in the cab, ACTING. And Michael [Mann] says, 'What are you doing?' And I said, 'I gotta do my thing. You know who's in the backseat [Tom Cruise], and I gotta do my thing!' He says, 'How about you not do your thing?'"

When Foxx asked for clarification, Mann replied: 

"When was the last time you got into a cab and some cab driver was doing that thing? Or were they tired of driving that cab, trying to get home, so the last thing they gave a s**t about is who's in the backseat? Do it that way."

Mann was going for something realistic. He didn't want Foxx to behave like an actor. He wanted him to behave like a cab driver. As Foxx puts it, Mann was "completely right," adding:

"That was a moment of learning. He was telling me, in other words, to shed whatever I'd obtained up to that point. Celebrity, this and that — you gotta shed it, in order for you to get to it. Otherwise, you're in trouble. I learned that and, even today, use that as a tool, or a discipline, to get to the characters."

The lesson of this story: don't try to impress Tom Cruise or Michael Mann will tell you to stop. Good advice.